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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Something to "Crow" about

Hey Y'all,

The mornings here have been cool and wonderful. It definitely feels like Autumn. Oh my very favorite time of the year! The Season becomes alive with color and it is as if the vegetation and animals say it is time celebrate!
It is also my favorite times to craft. Although I have not yet seen a true autumn with its amazing, wonderful colors, I have seen photos. When I look at them I can smell the arid smell of the leaves hear the crunching under my feet and watch as they float delicately from the tree,a dance if you will as it falls.

Mary Rudakas has a way with making me wish I could be in Illinois where she is, just so I could see all of theses wonderful things my mind imagines. Her most recent kit, Harvest Sunset SVG Kit sends my mind to a wonderful hometown feel, a celebration of the harvest season if you will . She has designed an amazingly real looking pumpkin and a coffee pod cart that makes you think of a cool autumn's day hay ride. If that wasn't enough there is a Pumpkin Diorama box card that folds flat only to be brought to 3d life by opening it and placing it on the counter. The sunflower wreath with all their smiling faces welcomes you at your door or take a harvest gift to a friend with the wonderful Bucket Bag. As a free gift you can make a birch tree card to go with your bucket bag, just download it from the freebies page. If all that doesn't make you want to go get this kit, then try adding a crow to that wonderful pumpkin because what is fall without crows, hayrides and the bountiful harvest of the season.

I started with the pumpkin but it so inspired me that I had to add a little crow. Then of course what is a pumpkin and a crow without leaves and vines coming from the pumpkin. All of this is so easy to make because of Mary's files from svgcuts. Are you inspired yet? well lets get going on adding a crow to your pumpkin. Join me won't you in the celebration of Harvest.

I started making this crow last year but the design just wasn't working, so I put it in my extras box for fall. When I wanted extra vines for my pumpkin I found it in the box and well the rest is history as they say.

Start with the pumpkin from ,Harvest Sunset SVG Kit cut and glue it together as Mary instructs in the tutorial for this kit. I inked the edges and down the center of the sides using Dusty Durango Ink from Stampin Up. The leaves for this pumpkin were inked using Always Artichoke and my Copic Marker # YG67, adding a few extra squiggly lines here and there on the top of the leaf.
When the pumpkin was all together I decided to get my extras box out and add a few extra vines. After adding some vines and flourishes that were extras in my box I happened on the crow and well you knot the rest.

To make the crow you will need to cut the Autumn Acorn SVG Kit . Now I sized it very small and while I wish I could tell you how small I am not sure I can. You see that was on my old computer and I do not think I saved the file. I will look in the near future to see if I can find it but think really small like might fit on a 6x6 paper. Sorry that is the best I can do right now. I cut two. One for the head and one for the body. I cut the 6 of the accent pieces using AC Melon Card stock. Before cutting those pieces I added a tear drop shape to two of the pieces as nose holes for the beak. The body was cut using Recollections ( Michaels) Black smooth cardstock as it is easier to glue and work with when making a small object.
As I was digging through the box I came a cross a center from a leaf that is in one of Mary's files. that gave me the idea to use it to make the feet. It is a bit complicated but I used leaf_2 from Harvest Country Home SVG Collection and released compound path and then ungroup it. This allowed me to click on the center cut out and drag it to the center of the mat to design the feet. I duplicated it and using the knife tool cut off the top two pieces of one. I cut out a section of the middle "toe" and shortened it welding it together again and then making sure that the nodes ( square grey boxes) didn't need to be deleted to straighten out the lines. On the other duplicate I cut off all the sized pieces and then welded the one straight piece to the rest of the toe again deleting nodes as needed to make it straight. Then it happened... I got an idea from God and I started giggling... the leg needed knobby knees. so I made a small sort of oval wasn't perfect and yours doesn't have to be either. I duplicated it before I welded it into place so I would have a knee cap and then using dusty Durango pen I drew lines and circles the knee cap and leg.

Set the legs on top of the pumpkin so you can decide where you want them and how you want them to look. Glue them loosely onto the pumpkin lid and the body of your crow next. I made the collar next to hold the head into place. I used a long rectangle, a small triangle to make the v in it and welded to smaller triangles to the v. Add some score lines to it and change the color of the score lines so you can tell your machine to cut it at a different depth, I use copy paper setting to cut them.
Cut it out and then glue together making a collar. Add your ribbon for the neck area and then glue your head onto that. I had already added the hat from Leaves Are Falling SVG Kit . I used two med black pearls from Recollections for the eyes and Ranger White Enamel accent to make the white dots on the eyes. I used leaves cut out of the black Recollections paper and shaped them with my Mc Gill Flower tools, then glued them into place. The tiny buttons and sunflower button are from Buttons Galore and more. The same leaves were cut much, much smaller inked with Rich Razzleberry ink and glued to the hat. I added two of the center pieces of the leaves that gave me the idea to make the legs as well. I also added a ribbon to the hat instead of the band.

Extra leaves from my box were added to the lid of the pumpkin and ALL of this was glued with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. One thing I forgot to mention is I added rocks from the flower section of Dollar Tree, to the stem of the inside of the pumpkin. This was to weight the lid a bit and make the pumpkin appear a bit more squatty. This is because those are the pumpkins I like. The Rocks were hot glued into place. This was the only time I used hot glue.

This is my version of Mary's amazing Pumpkin. I hope it makes you celebrate the Harvest of the Season giving thanks to our maker for it as well. I look forward to seeing all of your pumpkins and maybe a crow or two. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting Y'all!
Blessings, Sharalyn